Trial to open in notorious archdiocesan abuse case

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer

Even among the horrors cataloged in the Philadelphia grand jury report on child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, the story of “Billy Doe” stands out.

He was the 10-year-old altar boy and fifth grader at St. Jerome’s parish in the Northeast allegedly serially molested and raped by two priests and a teacher who, prosecutors said, passed him from one abuser to the next.

Ashamed and too frightened to tell anyone, Billy, now 23, got ejected from two high schools, tried to kill himself, and spent years addicted to heroin and pills. Billy Doe is a pseudonym used by prosecutors; The Inquirer has a policy of not identifying victims of sexual assault.”

On Tuesday, two of Billy’s alleged victimizers go to trial in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in a coda to this year’s landmark trial that ended in the first conviction of an archdiocesan leader for the sexual abuse of a child by a priest.

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